Quote Originally Posted by PanzerJaeger View Post
Just like Iraq?

The Taliban has no control over anything, and are consistently routed without much difficulty whenever they present themselves to US forces (can't say much about our NATO allies), yet some are already willing to declare this lost.
For every 1 Taliban that dies in battle, about 3 take his place. This is a war you cannot win just by shooting everyone.

The US military has heavily armored humvee convoys driving around southern Afghanistan as we speak looking to provoke Taliban attacks just to crush them.
I always thought the Southern Regions were primarily ISAF responsibility, and they've been doing a good job with what they got.

Will Afghanistan sustain democracy or revert back to tribalism? Who cares.
The people care.

The goal is - and should have always been - to keep the Taliban out of power.
The problem is that they are growing, Panzer, they don't need to hold land.

The best option would have been to prop up a relatively secular local strongman and form a benevolent autocracy,
Because that's worked so well.


There is absolutely no way they will be able to retake and hold land any longer than the US allows them to.
Again, they don't want or need land. That isn't their goal, their goal is the withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan, if they can achieve that, they've won.

I see you also neglect mentioning our European and Canadian allies. They seem to be doing a lot more in Afghanistan than the US bothers to.